A short while ago you may of seen my thoughts on why Manchester needs a new City Park – our very own High Line?writes Dan Mitchell of Barton Willmore.

What started out as blog post on these very pages, soon went on to be covered by the Manchester Evening News and BBC Radio Manchester, leading to a worthwhile debate on how our ever-growing city needs to provide the right balance between city living, economic growth and creating attractive spaces that are beneficial to healthy lifestyles.

Many local people and organisations got in touch with their support and thoughts, including Labour and Co-op MP for Central Manchester, Lucy Powell.

Cities need to embrace the use of green spaces as part of overall strategy for growth; so why shouldn’t Manchester lead on this. At the City Council’s Executive meeting on 18th March, the draft “Green and Blue Infrastructure Strategy” was debated and will soon be presented for public consultation; the document states that “high quality parks, green spaces and waterways are vitally important features of successful cities.”

Who would disagree? Whilst the document neatly sets out some high level themes, I can’t help but feel it is lacking in big ideas. Whilst in parallel, Salford City Council has just consulted on the scope of its “Salford Green Space Strategy Supplementary Planning Document”.

So here’s a thought…How about a joint open space strategy addressing the city centre of Manchester and setting out two or three big ideas for open space in the city centre?

We are keen to hear your thoughts and ideas to enable us to start taking this vision forward.